Saudi: Oil exports to U.S. jump

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<<The shift also could simply be the result of restoring supplies to U.S. customers whose shipments had been cut much more deeply after prices crashed four years ago.

“Up to 2008, there was definitely a much larger rise in shipments to Asia, that’s where the demand was growing. The cuts that followed that were not proportionate,” said a senior executive at a major Saudi oil customer.

“Now there’s a degree of rebalancing.” The rise in bookings to the U.S. Gulf has also tightened tanker availabilities, helping push the average earnings for VLCCs on the benchmark Middle Gulf to Japan route — the major market barometer — to their highest level in over a year to $33,205 a day, Baltic Exchange data showed.>>